I'll Find You
by penman27
Summary: When a young girl finds that the Fire Nation is slaughtering the Air Nomads, she sets out to find her father, an Airbender that left home months ago to the Air Temples concerning Avatar business. Join Sayli, as she fights to find her Father.
1. A trip, and A Letter

_A smooth wind rippled across a field of wheat. At one end was a small girl with black-brown hair and at the other a young man with a blue arrow on his head. The little girl was running to the man and the man was running towards her. They got ready to embrace each other. They stepped closer and closer until-_

"Sayli! Get up dear! It's time to feed the animals!" Her mother called.

Sayli sat up squinting. She moaned and scratched her head. A drop of water fell onto her nose and she flinched. When she realized it was just a drop of water, she let out aa annoyed grunt.

It was raining.

She got up and got dressed and walked down the rickety wooden stairs. Her mother was preparing, once again, Juk for breakfast. The smell lingered as she walked into the barn that was attached to her house.

The pail for water and food were sitting in their usual spots. She filled one with hay and the other with water. Then she opened the door and ran to the barn out in the field.

As she past the wheat field, she remembered her dream and looked away. "Dad." She whispered to herself. She let out a sad sigh as she walked hastily through the barn doors.

Three baby turtle ducks ran past her. The two ostrich horses, Kayda and Doru, squawked at her as she emptied some hay into their buckets. Behind her she heard a meow and she turned to see the jaguar cats giving her "the look".

She laughed dryly, "I haven't forgotten you guys." Sayli walked over to a giant bag full of feline food. She put a couple handfuls on the ground for the cats. She also found a small pail and filled it with water.

After she was done feeding the animals, she hurried back to the house to eat her breakfast.

"So Mom, since the wheat harvest is almost here, I thought maybe we could make some bread with some of it, you know, with the leftovers." Sayli suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea. The harvest looks plentiful this year and I am predicting we will get a good profit." Her mother said, smiling weakly. "Today, you just need to go into town and get some food. We will be having Roast Duck tonight."

Sayli's eyes lit up, and as soon as she was done with her breakfast, she hurried down to the street market.

Sayli loved it there. It smelled so exotic. Foods were being cooked and fried and baked and everything. Perfume was being tested. Instruments played in turn for spare change. A hand cart pulled by with masks on it. The colors, the sounds, everything was so nice here.

She walked through a few bazaars and past a few beggars, an old man was singing for a gold piece. _How Odd┘ she thought. I feel bad for him, yet am amused. I have a spare copper piece._

Sayli dropped a copper piece and the old man thanked her. She carried on towards the butcher shop. There, she saw an old man butchering a hog.

"Excuse me," she asked. "How much would a single duck cost?"

"5 copper pieces" The old man said gruffly. She nodded and pulled out 5 copper pieces and gave them to the man. In exchange, he gave her a naked duck on a hook. She laughed cheerfully and carried on her way.

Usually, when Sayli was at the Street Market, she stopped and looked at stuff on her way home. So it was no surprise that she ended up bargaining for a pair of jade earrings with a scratch in one. Eventually she only paid two copper pieces.

Over her shoulder she heard, ⌠┘nobody left.■

⌠Really, nobody?■

⌠Nope, looks like the fire nation is setting out for war.■

Sayli knew better than to listen to war talk. She had better things to do, but the next thing caught her off-guard.

⌠Wow, I know a couple people from the Air Temple, matter ▒fact, that Sayli▓s father is from one of those temples that they got.■

⌠Poor man, slaughtered. Wonder when the family will figure it out.■

Sayli▓s heart dropped. Then it rapidly started to beat. She breathed hard and began to run home. She ran as fast as she could, as if it were as, if she ran fast enough, what she heard would go away.

That night, at dinner, she was silent. She went to bed and did her chores in the morning. For the next week, she was in this habit, barely talking.

One day, she had to go to the market again. She tried to do her business quickly. She kept getting distracted.

As she was beginning to go home, she heard a women crying. She was holding a letter in her hand and reading it aloud to a crowd.

⌠┘I am scared, I do not know if I will ever see you again. Know that I love you. I must close this letter now. My dearest.■

The crowd around her erupted in conversation. Sayli walked up to her friend, Daya, and asked what was happening.

⌠Didn▓t you hear, the Fire Nation has started war. They have already wiped out most of the Air Benders. They are killing them all.■ She said.

But Daya regretted it for one, she saw the look on Sayli▓s face, And two, it just snapped that Sayli▓s father was an Airbender and that he hand been gone for quite a few months.

Sayli▓s eyes filled with tears. She breathed hard and a lump in her throat appeared. She dropped her things and ran. She just ran home.

When she got there, her mother saw that something was wrong and asked what had happened. Sayli walked up to her and collapsed in her arms in sobs. After a half hour of crying, she told her mother what had been happening.

⌠I have to find him mom. He has to be alive. I just know he is. I have to go.■

⌠No you can▓t Sayli, you have barely learned the basics of earth bending. You can▓t go, I forbid you.■

⌠But mom, he▓s out there, I can feel it.■

⌠I said No! Now wash up and go to bed!■

Sayli▓s eyes filled with tears and her lip quivered. Then she ran to her room. Slamming the door.


	2. Regrets

Chapter Two:

Regrets

May, Sayli's Mother, woke up to hearing the drizzling rain on the roof. She let out a sigh and remembered the events of last night and sighed again.

She sat up and walked over to the staircase to Sayli's room.

_think I'll go up and see if she's ok..._

She knocked on the door, but no one answered. She opened the door and looked inside. The bed was untouched.

She leaned against the doorway with a blank expression. Then her face grew into shock and May ran down the staircase and out the door towards the barn.

May saw ostrich horse footprints in the mud. "No!" She yelled. "I can't lose you too!"

She finally got to the barn door and saw it was cracked. She felt a lump in her throat.

She swung the door open and saw that one ostrich horse was gone, Kayda.

"NO!" She screamed and then burst into tears, sliding down the doorway. Crying in the mud.

Sayli looked back down on Sun Hurst Valley. "Yah!" She cried and Kayda galloped on over the mountainside.

She pulled up the hood on her robe. It was getting cold.

They galloped over streams and through thick small thorests. After traveling for 5 hours, Sayli stopped at a village.

The map she had brought was of the whole world. She unrolled the damp scroll and found where she was.

Dayada Village.

Then she traced her fingers to the Southern Air Temple. That was where her father was. She sighed and thought about her mother. She was beginning to feel lonely.

The next morning, Sayli left bright and early. It would be a two day trip to the Southern Air Temple.

They traveled all day. Passing people on the way. She bought some food, three days worth.

Sayli tossed up a roll in the air and Kayda caught it in her mouth, snarfing it down.

They passed a crystal blue lake, and saw a sign that pointed one way and said; The South Sea.

That got her thinking, and so she stopped near the lake and pulled out her map. The lake was connected to a river that let out in the south sea, a couple miles off the shore of the Southern Air Temple Isle.

She decided to follow the river, and sure enough, she was at the shore within nightfall. She unrolled her sleeping bag and pondered on how she would get across the sea.

In the morning she looked down the beach and saw a village. She rode there and found a ferry service. She was in luck:

They were just starting the boarding for the Southern Air Temple trip. And, they accepted animals.

Once she had bought her ticket and she was on the ferry, she began wondering what would happen if her father wasn't there.

No. She though, I can't give up hope, it's all I have got!

The ferry trip would be an overnight one, so she fell asleep, laying on Kayda's stomach.


	3. What Sayli Found

Chap 3:

What Sayli Found

The ferries sharp horn blasted and Sayli jumped. Kayda squawked and fidgeted up.

As her eyes adjusted, Sayli caught site of towering towers of rock ahead, laden with a spooky cover a white mist. She could see that the rock was gray and rather-large banzai looking trees were poking up between cracks.

She shivered as the ferries bow disappeared into the mist. It was so thick she couldn't see five feet in front of her.

So she walked over to Kayda and held her reigns tight to her. She felt it suddenly chill rapidly. Snow was falling she saw. The only time she had ever seen snow was when she went with her family up to the top of Saylin Mountain. The mountain she was named after.

They descended into the depths of the isle. She felt strange as she saw small rat-like creatures scurry into bushes away from the ferry and peer out.

When they started slowing, she moved towards the gate. She wanted to get out of this mist. It was looming and felt as if it were a blanket of fear across the thick pillars of rock.

A loud thud made her jump and then she watched the gate fall with a splash into shallow water.

"Off the boat unless you have a Round-Trip Ticket!" The captain boomed.

Only Sayli walked off the boat. She stepped into the water and quickly regretted it. It was as if icy needles pricked her. She ran to shore, just in time to see the ferries gate be pulled up.

She walked forward and then realized in all the mist, that she was in a village. There was what seemed to be an inn and a bar. And at the far end, there was a flying bison. It looked like her fathers, Yangyay.

She guessed that the flying bison was a ride up the mountain to the temple on top.

Sayli decided that she wanted a warm drink and some warm food before she went up to the temple.

But as she walked closer to the building that was the inn, she saw scorch marks on the walls, and holes in the wall. Her heart felt as if it fell into her stomach.

The Bar looked the same way, and as she walked towards the bison, it groaned and moved away, only to be caught by a tether holding its neck to the ground. It had black marks in its fur.

"Oh, you poor thing!" Sayli exclaimed, and walked up to the creature slowly, putting her hand out. She looked at it for a minute and it looked at her.

She realized something, "Yangyay?" She asked blindly.

The creature leaped forward but was caught by the tether.

It was Yangyay! She untied the tether, and she sprang forward, knocking Sayli down. After licking her, she backed off and let Sayli get up.

Was dad here? He must have been.

She tied Kayda up and got onto Yangyay. She knew how to ride a sky bison, she had done it several times before.

"Yip Yip!" She cried and the bison leaped up into the air and spiraled up the mountainside. As the more vertical they got, the more hard it was to hold on.

Her knuckles turned white as they rushed up through clouds. Yangyay was spiraling and that was not helping.

But as she was about to let go, they came up out of the clouds, drenched. There at the top was the most beautiful place she had ever seen. Laden with yellow brickwork, pikes sticking up like needles. It was beautiful.

Her amazement was short lived.

As she looked around she saw everything was covered in ash. A tree that was on fire, fell over and caught shrubs on fire.

They landed and she jumped off and stamped her foot, punched the air and twisted her wrists and mud splashed the fire out.

She looked around. Nothing living was in site.


End file.
